Big win to opposition puts heat on Yoon

South Korea’s liberal opposition parties appeared set to win a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, vote counts showed, a result that could make conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol a lame duck for his remaining three years in office.

With most of the votes cast counted, the main opposition Democratic Party and its allied party appear to have won a combined 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. Another small liberal opposition party was expected to win 12 seats under a proportional representation system, according to South Korean media tallies.

Yoon’s ruling People Power Party and its partner party were projected to have 109 seats.

The final official results were expected overnight.

But the outcome means the liberal opposition forces would extend their control of the Parliament, although they will likely fail to garner the super majority of 200 seats that gives them legislative powers to pass bills vetoed by a president and even impeach him or her.

The election was widely seen as a mid-term confidence vote on Yoon, a former top prosecutor who took office in 2022 for a single five-year term.

He has pushed hard to boost cooperation with the United States and Japan as a way to address a mix of tough security and economic challenges. But Yoon has been grappling with low approval ratings at home and a Parliament that has limited his major policy platforms. Yoon’s major foreign policies will likely be unchanged. But the ruling party’s defeat could set back Yoon’s domestic agenda. Exit polls sponsored by South Korea’s major TV stations had predicted a bigger win by the opposition parties.

Turnout for South Korea’s 44 million eligible voters was estimated at 67 per cent, the highest for a parliamentary election since 1992, according to the National Election Commission.